Banshee
2nd January 2011, 00:15
Study ties brain structure size to socializing
From NY AP
12/31/2010
Do you spend time with a lot of friends? That
might mean a particular part of your brain is larger than usual.
It's the amygdala, which lies deep inside. Brain scans of 58
volunteers in a preliminary study indicated that the bigger the
amygdala, the more friends and family the volunteers reported
seeing regularly.
That makes sense because the amygdala is at the center of a
brain network that's important for socializing, says Lisa Feldman
Barrett, an author of the work published online Sunday by the
journal Nature Neuroscience.
For example, the network helps us recognize whether somebody is
a stranger or an acquaintance, and a friend or a foe, said Barrett,
of Northeastern University in Boston.
Continued at http://www.necn.com/12/26/10/Study-ties-brain-structure-size-to-socia/landing_scitech.html?blockID=379811&feedID=4213
[The author, Lisa Feldman Barrett, is the Director of the Interdisciplinary Affective Science Laboratory (IASL) website (http://www.affective-science.org/). Among other major funding supporters of IASL is the Army Research Institute (major funding links can be found on their site. IASL also links to a grant disclosure page under “Funding”.)
It could be noteworthy that of all studies conducted by IASL, the aforementioned article on socializing was picked up by the Main Stream Media and appears to be a focus story on most MSM webpages and broadcast news. Are the Controllers attempting to pique our curiosity through self discovery? Will the next big Facebook Application be “how big are your friends’ amygdalas”? Will the malls across the world start offering “five minute brain scans”? All humor aside, could this study and others like it bea a potential Eugenics tool designed to separate the sociable from the misanthropes as a blue print to weed out those pesky personable peasants?
The Army, no doubt, would prefer recruits with smaller amygdales. Will the next round of epidemic vaccines be equipped with the limbic equivalent of salt peter?
To quote Dr. Barrett, “the network helps us recognize whether somebody is a stranger or an acquaintance, and a friend or a foe”. What better way to force human isolation and maintain greater control than to inhibit the brain’s ability to discern a loved one from an enemy?
In 2007, the US Military commissioned Dr. Barrett’s publication, “The Science of Emotion”. The conclusion appears to have been reached that emotional responses are not a malleable tools for control as no biological basis for emotional response or identification can be established. The chronology of these initiatives seems to be to seek the physical seat of social behavior in lieu of individual emotion.
Dr. Barrett states that the current study, although failing to reach any solid conclusions without further research ($$$), could be a very useful tool and “ might someday lead to ways to help people maintain active social lives, “ A priority that is no doubt the impetus for psychological research spending by the US Military:rolleyes:.
related social psychology link http://www.sesp.org/
From NY AP
12/31/2010
Do you spend time with a lot of friends? That
might mean a particular part of your brain is larger than usual.
It's the amygdala, which lies deep inside. Brain scans of 58
volunteers in a preliminary study indicated that the bigger the
amygdala, the more friends and family the volunteers reported
seeing regularly.
That makes sense because the amygdala is at the center of a
brain network that's important for socializing, says Lisa Feldman
Barrett, an author of the work published online Sunday by the
journal Nature Neuroscience.
For example, the network helps us recognize whether somebody is
a stranger or an acquaintance, and a friend or a foe, said Barrett,
of Northeastern University in Boston.
Continued at http://www.necn.com/12/26/10/Study-ties-brain-structure-size-to-socia/landing_scitech.html?blockID=379811&feedID=4213
[The author, Lisa Feldman Barrett, is the Director of the Interdisciplinary Affective Science Laboratory (IASL) website (http://www.affective-science.org/). Among other major funding supporters of IASL is the Army Research Institute (major funding links can be found on their site. IASL also links to a grant disclosure page under “Funding”.)
It could be noteworthy that of all studies conducted by IASL, the aforementioned article on socializing was picked up by the Main Stream Media and appears to be a focus story on most MSM webpages and broadcast news. Are the Controllers attempting to pique our curiosity through self discovery? Will the next big Facebook Application be “how big are your friends’ amygdalas”? Will the malls across the world start offering “five minute brain scans”? All humor aside, could this study and others like it bea a potential Eugenics tool designed to separate the sociable from the misanthropes as a blue print to weed out those pesky personable peasants?
The Army, no doubt, would prefer recruits with smaller amygdales. Will the next round of epidemic vaccines be equipped with the limbic equivalent of salt peter?
To quote Dr. Barrett, “the network helps us recognize whether somebody is a stranger or an acquaintance, and a friend or a foe”. What better way to force human isolation and maintain greater control than to inhibit the brain’s ability to discern a loved one from an enemy?
In 2007, the US Military commissioned Dr. Barrett’s publication, “The Science of Emotion”. The conclusion appears to have been reached that emotional responses are not a malleable tools for control as no biological basis for emotional response or identification can be established. The chronology of these initiatives seems to be to seek the physical seat of social behavior in lieu of individual emotion.
Dr. Barrett states that the current study, although failing to reach any solid conclusions without further research ($$$), could be a very useful tool and “ might someday lead to ways to help people maintain active social lives, “ A priority that is no doubt the impetus for psychological research spending by the US Military:rolleyes:.
related social psychology link http://www.sesp.org/